One Crane
by Is That Rhetorical
Summary: On a mission to fold 1000 cranes, does that last one really matter?


**I seem to be only capable of SasuSaku oneshots, don't I? Oh well. I'll deal with it.**

**R&R please.**

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Sakura looked at the giant heap of origami squares on her desk and wondered what had possessed her to take up the challenge of folding 1000 cranes before Naruto brought Sasuke back.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"_What are these for?" Sakura asked hotly. Ino had just dumped a box filled with black origami paper (heavy as hell) into her arms._

"_It's for Sasuke-kun."_

"_But Sasuke-kun doesn't know how to do origami..."_

"_No, but you do, right? Or are you really that lame, forehead?"_

_Sakura growled dangerously. "Of course I know origami, pig."_

"_Then you should know about cranes, right?"_

"_Who doesn't? Make 1000 paper cranes and you're supposed to get a... wish." _Like wishing for Sasuke-kun to come back safe, duh, _she thought._

"_You don't seem like you're up for the challenge though, Sakura," Ino said with a smug grin. "You're faltering under the weight of the paper alone. Can you really make 1000 cranes in the four days it'll take for Naruto to bring Sasuke-kun back?"_

"_Damn right I can!" Sakura shouted. "In fact, I'll finish before Naruto and Sasuke-kun get back in four days!"_

"_I'll hold you to it then, forehead."_

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Right, that's why," she muttered. "I can't lose to Ino, no matter what. She's not folding them, so if I can do these, I'll definitely not only beat her, but make sure that Sasuke-kun comes back safe," she said, her voice gaining strength and confidence.

Her fingers, however, were not so. She fumbled with the first crane, folding too slowly as she tried to remember the steps to make it just right; if you pulled the head and the tail, the wings flapped. It took her ten minutes to get through the first one. "Unacceptable." She cringed when she realized how much like Lee she sounded.

But nevertheless, with new resolve, she started the second one.

The second one became the third one, and the third became the fourth, and the fourth became the seventy fifth, and the seventy fifth became the two hundred and forty seventh without her being aware of it, her fingers flying through the pattern again and again. Ino had said she'd given her exactly1000 sheets, the package that came just for people like her who were up to the challenge of folding 1000 cranes, so there was no need to count; when she ran out of paper, she was done.

"Sakura!" her mother said from the door. "Sakura, do you have any idea what time it is?"

She didn't. She'd gotten the paper after training, about 4:30, and hadn't stopped folding since 7:15. She glanced at the clock.

"F-Four thirty?" she stammered.

"A.M. I don't know why these cranes are so important to you, but they are not worth your well being to complete. I expect that you will sleep in until at least noon to catch up on the sleep you've missed with these cranes."

Sakura wanted to protest, she really did, but her eyes that had been so widely open while she worked in the void without time drooped at the notion that she'd been awake for almost twenty four hours. _I won't sleep that long,_ she promised herself as she began to fade from consciousness. _I'll sleep in a little, maybe until nine, but then I'll get right back up and work on the cranes for Sasuke-kun. I don't have any training with Tsunade-sama tomorrow so I'll be..._

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Sakura woke with a start, although she didn't open her eyes, jumping out of a pleasant dream about Sasuke-kun. He was smiling, like he always had since she'd begun crushing on him back in her academy days.

But instead of hanging out with her, holding her hand, kissing her on the cheek, making out passionately with her, doing other activities with her that her mother didn't even know she knew about, he just stood there. His hand was outstretched, reaching for her with that little smile he'd only ever shown to Naruto directly, saying 'Come on. Hurry.' His voice had been flecked with impatience, urgency and desperation.

Sakura didn't know what to make of it. It wasn't really Sasuke, and if it was, what would he want her to hurry up and do? She'd gotten stronger, smarter, more graceful, anything and everything she could have possibly done to impress him, to be of use to him when he finally came back to Konoha, even if it was with all of his limbs broken so that he couldn't protest and try to run back to whoever it was who offered him power this time, after killing Orochimaru. What else could he want from her?

Her eyes lazily flickered open, thoughts still spinning behind them, and met the clock on her wall. She sat up abruptly and stumbled to her desk and automatically reached for a slip of paper.

2:36 pm! How could her mother have let her sleep so long? She'd said until noon, not 2:30. True, Sakura's mother had never approved of her persistent crush on Uchiha Sasuke after he'd stopped being her loyal, protective teammate and had become a missing Nin, S-rank in the bingo books, but she didn't know that she was folding the cranes to wish him a safe return. Unless she heard from Ino when she'd gone out this morning... then she definitely wouldn't have woken her, maybe even made sure she slept in so that she wouldn't be able to finish the cranes in time.

Sakura calmed herself after falling into the steady, gentle rhythm of creasing paper. She was reading too much into it. There was no way her mother had any malicious intention when she'd let her daughter sleep in. She was concerned that Sakura hadn't gotten nearly as much sleep as she needed. That was all. That _had_ to be it.

But, too much time in bed or not, Sakura was definitely going to finish the cranes before Sasuke got home. Even if he was going to be all right anyway, and of course he was, she wanted to show him how much she still cared about him.

If he hadn't gotten it through the years she'd spent caring for him far too much for her own good.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXX_

Three days later, Sakura was patiently stringing the 994 cranes she had so far onto two long strings. It was a last minute decision, but it was a practical way to carry them around. There was no way in hell she would try to fit them in a jar or a box and risk messing up their perfect forms. No, a little hole in the right wing would do, and she would run out to him with a string in each hand, the 1000 cranes fluttering in the breeze of her wake, hug him and let them wind around her and her Sasuke-kun.

"Sakura!" She heard Ino's voice from downstairs and quickly began folding the last six cranes. "Come on! Shikamaru and Chouji are already back, and they said the others are coming soon! We have to leave now if we're going to meet them at the gate like we planned! Hurry up!"

"I'm almost done!" she yelled back. "I've only got five more now!"

"Come on! You can finish them when you get back! It's not like he's going to notice that a few are missing. It's the thought that counts!"

Sakura hesitated. She folded three more when Ino shouted that she was going to leave her behind and see Sasuke first. Stumbling over the second to last one, she thought, _Well, one less won't really make a difference, right?_

Deciding it wouldn't, she gathered up her strings and pulled them along down the stairs and the road, up to the gate.

Naruto's orange and black jacket was visible from down the road, although obscured by a navy blue sack. Sakura's heart thumped faster in her chest as she realized it wasn't a sack, but a human being. A very familiar looking human being which fit with the way Naruto hung his head so hopelessly, as he'd done only once before.

She didn't move when he walked right up to her. They both stood looking at the body for Kami knows how long, until Sakura let go of both strand of origami cranes to fly away in the wind and reached out and brushed that perfectly pale cheek.

Naruto looked up at her, and her eyes found ocean blue orbs begging for solace, forgiveness, and a shoulder to cry on. "Sakura-chan," he whispered, triggering the floodgates on both sides of the Uchiha.

She'd thought one wouldn't make a difference.

Apparently, one crane did.


End file.
